Month: August 2026

Straining out gnats and swallowing camels

eejoseph,

What’s a skill you consider basic, that most people don’t actually know how to do?

Blind guides, straining out a little fly and swallowing a camel.

Fiction often resembles facts, and, in the current free for all in information exchange, millions are mislabeling truth and lies. In our lifetime we have seen that countless deaths have occurred because someone failed to handle scientific facts in a mature and responsible manner. The same can be said of spiritual information exchange. Knowing how to receive instruction about the health and optimal functioning of our psyche and how to vet that information is not a widespread skill.

That is why Jesus said about his contemporaries that they majored in minors, or, in our terms, made millions of a zero. They gave up a tenth of their property gains – herbs and spices, but they had a ten-foot pole for justice, mercy and faithfulness.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23, NASB)

In bad shape blind or following the blind

How to receive and how to vet – fact check –  information is not a widespread skill.

“You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:24, NASB)

Islamic greed: corruption and collapse

eejoseph

See how idolatrous they are!  They want prophetic ministry like the Jews had.  They had to claim the last prophet, like the Jews had John the Baptist  They wanted to have a holy place like the Jews had. They built a mosque on a captured hill in the land of the Jews. They wanted and still want global influence like the Jews had. So they invented a book like the Jews have. Where this greed ends is clear from Christian ethics.

Covetousness is idolatry

When the 7th century Arabs came to learn a few things orally about the Jews and their God they thought they saw an opportunity to have something similar. Driven by unhinged jealousy and greed they now have their own prophet, book and holy places. The collapse is evident. The greed stands out. Islam is a mountain of covetousness.

Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Colossians 3:5, NASB)